Diary of a Marine
by Rust Cohle
Summary: See what its like on the front lines of the Human Covenant War through the eyes of a regular jarhead. Reviews appreciated!
1. Matt & Leo: Introduction

****A/N: About time I wrote an Author's Note. While the Halo series shows the story of the Human-Covenant War through the visors of super-soldiers like Spartans and highly skilled ODSTs/Elites, this story is about the Marines and what the war is like for them. It starts with their graduation from Marine Camp and ends with their eventual deaths or retirement. ****

****Blah blah blah, I don't own Halo blah blah blah. ****

****Where I couldn't find definitive info about the UNSC, I just subbed in the practices of the American armed forces, which the UNSC is based off of anyways. For example, the Marines are based in a 'Marine Corps Base Camp'. The story cuts between third person narrator sections and the writing of the Marines. ****

****I hope you enjoy the story. Halo lore knowledge is desirable but not necessary. ****

* * *

****Introduction****

* * *

****11:09 PM, July 30****th****, 2534 ****

****In Marine Corps Base Camp Fujikawa in Esztergom, Planet Reach****

**MATTHEW**

Matt sits on his bed, datapad in hand. He thinks for a moment, then begins to write.

"Hi there…"

* * *

Posted on 11:20 PM, July 30th, 2534

Hi there. My name's Matt Whitesides and I'm a Marine. Two things you should know about me. I like to eat peanut butter, and I _love _to kick Covenant ass. And guess what? I'm all out of peanut butter, so I guess it's time for some ass _kicking_!

Well actually, we've got plenty of peanut butter. It's part of the rations you get here in Reach. However, its unsweetened and tastes like shit compared to the commercial brands.

I'm fresh out of marine camp, too, so I've never kicked Covenant ass before. But that'll change shortly, because I've been assigned to a ship going out of system. Exciting stuff, huh? I'm not allowed to tell you all the name or anything 'cause it's all classified. You get in the military, you find that most things are.

I'll tell you all a little bit about me. I'm 6'4, ripped, and sexy and dangerous as hell.

I kid, I kid. I'm 5'9, but the rest is all still true. I was born in Texas State in the United Republic, but I moved to Esztergom here in Reach when I was eight. My parents are both military, that's why, they were reassigned. Blah, blah, blah, believe it or not I had a normal life. Never left the planet since, until now that is.

This is the last time I'm going to be on Reach in a long while. Maybe the last time in forever. That isn't me being depressing, that's just the facts. This war is the deadliest humanity has ever fought, and our enemies are ruthless. You've seen the pictures. Elites are eight feet tall, ugly as hell, and have motherfucking force fields. If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.

Alright, now that I've scared you, here's how this blog's gonna work. Me and some other Marines I met in boot camp are all writing it collaboratively. Contrary to popular belief, there are in fact brains behind our thick skulls. Due to the nature of our work and the difficulty of getting messages through slipspace, we don't get to write often, so we did the math and figured it would take at least four people working together to get a stable upload rate. The other guys are Leonardo, Jordan, Carlos, and Arkady. We even got a girl, Lena. Including me that's six in total—you'll meet them all soon enough.

This blog is for the folks at home who wonder what the brave men and women of the UNSC experience out there fighting aliens. Hope you enjoy.

* * *

**7:23 AM, July 31st, 2534 (the next morning)**

******In Marine Corps Base Camp Fujikawa in Esztergom, Planet Reach******

**LEONARDO**

Posted on 7:23 AM, July 31st, 2534

Hi, I'm Leonardo Paulsen, but people mostly just call me Leo. I was Matt's classmate here at Base Camp Fujikawa. We were running a half-marathon when he asked me to help do this blog, and I told him "Sounds cool man." Then I puked. I'm not much for long distance—in high school I was a sprinter.

I think the blog's a good idea. That's 'cause there's so much propaganda these days that you need people who are willing to say what's actually going down and what the war effort's actually like, because ONI spreads on the shit so thick you can smell it coming from the TV. Photons and sound waves don't even have an odor, but ONI makes it happen regardless.

I'm lucky enough to have two uncles in the Marines fighting this war who tell it like it is. This war isn't pretty, but it's the best cause there ever was and I made an educated decision to join.

Which is more than can be said for a lot of guys here in the armed forces. People join without thinking. They think they're smart and know what they're getting into, but they have no idea about the bigger picture, and then they blow their brains out or something ten years down the line. Or, more likely, they get taken out by an Elite caving their chest in with one punch or by a needle to the face. Have you seen the _photos_ of that shit? If you haven't, let me just tell you, it isn't pretty.

But there's a poetry in the struggle. People of all personalities, backgrounds, colors, prospects, abilities. United against overwhelming odds, in spite of the likelihood of a grisly death, in the greatest drama of human history. In another reality, the driver of a warthog is a plumber and the gunner is a lawyer. The lieutenant is an accountant and the rocketeer is a mechanic. The struggle is what unites them. Humanity has never been worse, but at the same time we've never been better. We're united for this fight. That's the beauty of it, and that's why I joined.

I'm boarding my ship soon. Unlike Matt my ship's assignment isn't classified. I'm going to be on the UNSC _Damocles_, It's a frigate bound for the Theta Doci system.

Maybe you'll see me on the news eh? Wish me luck, 'cause I'm going to need it.

* * *

**10:23 AM, July 31****st****, 2534 (three hours later)**

Three hours later, Leo had packed up and video-chatted his tearful parents on the other side of Reach, the less Hungarian side. He kissed his girlfriend goodbye who had come to see him off. After the kiss she said "Good luck" and "I'll miss you". Leo was too tired to say anything so he kissed her on the forehead and turned around. Then he went back to base, and just like that she was his ex-girlfriend. Her name was Katie and she was beautiful, but she wasn't interested in dating a Marine and he wasn't interested in dating a civvie. Matt patted him on the back with a sympathetic look. The breakup was amicable.

He ate his breakfast, which was less crappy than usual. It was pretty good actually, except for the instant coffee which was the same as always, that is to say it tasted like shit. He had a whole table to himself because it was the day after graduation and as a result most people had already eaten and rushed out to go hang out in Esztergom, have a family reunion or whatever the hell it was they wanted to do. Leo settled for sleeping in. He had already talked with his family, and as for hanging out, North Esztergom was his boot camp so he got his fill of that as a recruit.

When he finished he walked around aimlessly and ended up playing poker with some other Marines, waiting for the shuttle that would send them to the spaceport. By the time the shuttle arrived Leo had lost ten credits, which amused him. He got on the shuttle, and before he knew it he was at his new home. UNSC _Damocles_, the white lettering as fresh as the Marines it carried.

Leo was introduced to the ship's facilities and his squad by his commanding officer, one Staff Sergeant Kippenberger. A lot of names were exchanged, but all were forgettable. Leo supposed he'd get to know them better later on—though maybe the smart thing to do was to not get too attached. In any case, Leo didn't really care at the moment and decided they were all probably thinking similar thoughts.

He is now getting his blond hair cut by the ship's barber…it's always a crew cut. Not that it bothered him, but would it kill the military to have a little variety? Then the barber finished and Leo admired his mug in the mirror. He looked like a soldier.

* * *

**11:25 AM, July 31****st****, 2534 (one hour later)**

An hour after that, Leo was lying on the cool gel bed of a cryo-chamber, breathing stale air. "The UNSC is nothing, if not efficient," was his last thought before he tasted lime.

Then the world went cold, and everything turned black.

* * *

**A/N: So they're immediately getting shipped off to the fight. That's how it was for American troops in the Vietnam War. One day they're doing pushups in Butt Fuck, Tennessee and the next they're humping it on some mud road in enemy territory. I imagine it would be even worse for the UNSC because humanity is threatened with the Covenant, not Communism, and they (the UNSC) have FTL ships. I tried to get really into the Marines' heads and show a realistic experience of what it would be like to be a UNSC Marine going to go fight the Covenant. **

**We're introduced to two of our main characters, Matt and Leo. I imagine Matt as a typical good guy jock type. Short dark brown hair, Texas football player. I don't imagine him all that clearly, no specific face or anything. Leo, I'll admit I based off Leonardo DiCaprio. He's competent and smart but also moody.**

**What do you think? Leave reviews about the direction of the story, my writing, or anything. **


	2. Lena & Leo: Into the Suck

****A/N: In this chapter, we get to directly experience combat with Lena and we hear about it from Leo. It's a confused, bloody affair. Then we get to experience post-combat stress with Leo. How wonderful. ****

**Hope you enjoy reading. Maybe not in a Disney way, but more of a Dostoevsky way. **

* * *

****Into the Suck****

* * *

****4:38 PM, September 7th, 2534 (Approximately five weeks later)****

****On a classified location in the Cannal System****

**LENA**

"Go, go, go!"

Lena was on a Pelican, but now she's jumping off onto a landing platform. She's on an asteroid mining facility. She grew up in a place much like this one, but this time she isn't here as a civvie. Lena's a Marine now, and she's here to kill aliens. This is her first time.

When a Covenant fleet attacks a UNSC solar system, it releases swarms of fighters and special operations teams. Their purpose is to deactivate nuclear mines, destroy MAC's, and slaughter humans living on outposts in space. In this particular case, the mine had been infiltrated by a Covenant EVA squad which was split into three fireteams of two Elites and two Jackals each.

Against them was three ten-man squads of Marines. That made the odds twelve to thirty in favor of the humans. Typically, this would be piss poor odds for the UNSC, but the mining facility's administrative AI was still operational, which evened the playing field. Command estimated the Marines had an hour before a transport arrived to extract their targets.

* * *

**5:38 PM, August 14th, 2534 (one hour later)**

Lena is currently pinned down behind a rapidly heating up piece of metal. She's not sure what its function is, though it appears to be a malfunctioning airlock. With her is a traumatized young woman and the two smoking corpses of miners who were too slow. One of the Elites has set up a plasma cannon at a good spot in the center of the shipping area and is pinning down two fireteams.

She counts down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and for a moment ducks out of cover and throws a fragmentation grenade at the Elite. It misses, and she gets a burst of plasma nearby for her trouble. But then she recalibrates and throws another one. This time it's a perfect toss. The Elite rolls out of the way and starts jet-packing, thinking its getting away. But that's when the squad sniper who was sneaking in behind Lena gets an opening and shoots it twice in the back. The second shot causes the jet pack's fail-safe to explode, and the Elite's mangled body falls from the sky. Lena nods at the sniper, tells the hyperventilating girl next to her to stay put, and then the chase is back on for the Elite's friends. She runs into the huge warehouse to regroup with the other fireteams.

The facility's AI has by this time been disabled in compliance with the Cole Protocol. That's why it doesn't warn Lena about the Jackal flanking her group. She hears the sound of two needle rifle shots from somewhere behind her and the next thing she knows the sniper has a needle between his shoulder blades and the girl is clawing at one in her chest. She doesn't wait to watch the needles detonate and dives behind cover once more, one needle hitting the space she was in and another whistling overhead.

The Jackal curses its luck, reloads, and goes for the corporal who is the commanding officer of Lena's fireteam (what remains of it). The corporal has picked a forklift for his cover. Lena opens a channel to Blue Team. "Green Team is pinned down by a Jackal ranger, requesting immediate backup." The Jackal switches out its needle rifle for a plasma pistol and activates its point defense gauntlet. The purple shield hisses into life and the Jackal jet-packs onto an elevated walkway.

Blue Team replies. "Roger that, Green 2. We're coming in."

Lena creeps out of cover and follows the Jackal, waiting for it to give her an opening. It ignores her. The corporal shifts his positioning to stay in cover. The Jackal makes a turn and the corporal has an opening. Lena starts sprinting.

The corporal starts spraying the Jackal with his MA5 assault rifle. The bullets slam into the Jackal's energy shield, and it returns fire. The corporal moves to the side. A couple plasma pistol shots make Lena take cover again. The corporal finds another spot behind the forklift to take cover and starts shooting again. The Jackal's shield turns red and it fires off two shots which go wide. It looks like the corporal is about to win the fight, but then the Jackal sticks the forklift with a plasma grenade. It's a perfect toss right on the vehicle's fuel cells. The corporal breaks into a sprint and dives away. The grenade detonates.

A huge orange-white explosion sears Lena's retinas. Fuck! she yells. The corporal, a moment ago on the verge of victory, is now horribly burnt. He's screaming horribly and Lena winces. She forces herself to move forward as the Jackal executes her commanding officer with two plasma bolts to the head. She sprays the Jackal's side and it screeches. It shifts its shield towards Lena and fires at her. She fires at the shield's hand-gap and blows off its hand. Then Blue Team finally arrives, and a marksman with a battle rifle fires two bursts at the Jackal, one to the back and another to the head. There's a grisly spray of purple blood and the Jackal falls, fragments of brain and bone sloshing out of its destroyed skull. It's finally dead. Lena lets out a torturous sigh. Her heart is beating like a machine gun.

Blue Team walks up to her. Some of them have congratulatory remarks, others are silent. "Good job back there Fayette," the sergeant of Blue Team says, calling her by her last name. "You're joining us now, your call sign is Blue-6." Alright, Sarge, she says, and then Blue Team gets its sixth member. The chase is back on.

* * *

**5:58 PM, August 14th, 2534 (thirty minutes later)**

The Marines have chased the Covenant team to the surface of the mine. A Phantom is trying to extract it, but the Marines have three rocketeers who are deterring the dropship from getting any closer. In an interesting reversal of roles, the Covenant team is now trying to hunt down the rocketeers while the rest of the Marines try to protect them. It's a surprisingly difficult task.

Blue Team is with Rainbow Team, and between the two of them they have one rocketeer. That means the Covenant team is probably going for them. Sure enough, four Elites jump out of cover and start strafing the Marines. Lena sprays an Elite who chose a bad spot to land in, but then the rocketeer gets his face burnt off by a focus rifle and the Phantom swoops in out of the vacuum of space. A heroic Marine makes a dash for the rocket launcher, but an equally heroic elite jetpacks over and sticks the M41 with a plasma grenade. In any case, Lena has no time to make further observations as her only thought is evading the Phantom's main plasma cannon. Its troop bays open and grunt heavies start laying down suppressive fire as the Elites and Jackals retreat to the gravlift.

Lena takes a knee and puts three bursts into the head of an Elite spraying Rainbow Team. Its shields were weakened already and the third burst results in a satisfying spray of purple blood. She turns her attention to a straggling Jackal sprinting for the gravlift, but takes a needle in the stomach. She pulls it out and throws it away as fast as she can. Another needle hits her in the hip as she falls down.

"All fireteams stand down! I repeat, all fireteams—"

The needle explodes, and it's all she can do to stay conscious and process the words. "—Longsword is in bound, good job Marines!"

Lena watches as a Longsword gets on the fleeing Phantom's six. Then someone presses a can of biofoam to the jagged wound in her side. They depress the trigger and spray what seems like the can's entire contents into the bloody hole. It's the worst pain she's ever felt, she realizes, and then the world thankfully goes black.

* * *

**9:18 PM, September 7th, 2534 (about four hours later)**

**Sol System, Earth**

**LEONARDO**

Sent: 5:32 PM, August 24th, 2534

Posted: 9:18 PM, September 5th, 2534

Shit. I've been in a hot zone for the past two weeks or so. Surprised myself when I checked the date, because it feels like a lot longer. That's just how it is with jarring new experiences. At first everything is fresh and new and it's a lot to absorb, but then you settle down into a satisfying rhythm, and time goes by a lot faster.

Anyhow, combat. My squad is mostly greenhorns. Technically, we're all veterans now, but you get the idea. Only two of us had seen combat before. But that's nothing unusual—that's pretty much the state of every squad on our frigate. It's a combination of the war's incredibly high mortality rate and because the _Damocles _is a fresh Reach ship filled with Earth boys and Reach boys, and we don't experience the war in the same way the Outer Colonies do. Well, not yet that is.

First drop, two people died. We were evacuating some people. Civvies? They might've been civilian contractors for the military. Anyhow, it was behind enemy lines. But we had a lot of other squads with us—you don't think they would send a couple newbies to do a job like that alone do you? Now that I think about it, they were definitely doing something for the military. It took a while for us to move out all the materiel from the building and coordinate the rescue and all, but I guess we were a bit too slow because by that time there were Banshees on our asses and they started making it rain. Plasma. So that's how I lost my first two squad mates. I didn't know them very well, but I'm sure they were good people. Anderson and Jimenez I think. Don't know their last names. The mission was successful, so their sacrifices weren't in vain.

I'll keep you guys updated. Leo out.

* * *

**September 2nd, 2534 (five days earlier)**

**En route to Camp Fallujah, on Kolokos in the Theta Doci System**

This is seven days after Leo wrote his post. The signal will bounce five more days before it reaches Earth.

Leo sees, but he doesn't comprehend. He sees the corpse of his squad mate lying on the blood tray of the Pelican, but in a way he doesn't. The man's name was Anthony, and Leo made the mistake of getting to know him. Now he's dead.

It was a quick death. _Pff, pff, _two blue plasma bolts hit him in the chest. That alone would have killed him. Then, at the same time, there was the _tew tew tew _sound of a Covenant Carbine. Two to the chest and one to the head. Took the right side of his face clean off.

Funny thing was, if you looked at him from the right angle he looked alright, disregarding the glazed over look of death in his eyes. Turn your head enough to avoid looking at the ruined side of his face, and ignore the horribly burnt torso. Leo knows it's a dead body, but it oddly doesn't affect him. Using his imagination a little bit lets him feel like nothing really changed.

The girl sitting across from him is a different story. She's the last member of his squad along with him, and she's sobbing uncontrollably. Leo doesn't understand why, and he's a bit appalled at himself. He knows he should be sympathizing, but he's in shock and the social part of his brain isn't sending the right signals to his muscles. He tries out a couple sad faces, trying to conjure up the anguish he doesn't feel. But it's not working, and he settles on a stoic frown.

The Pelican hits some turbulence, and Anthony slides and hits the Pelican's main door head first, not doing any good for his looks. Leo winces. The pilot goes _shit _and sheepishly apologizes over the intercom, then an awkward silence. The girl cries harder, which pisses Leo off. Anthony's body just lies there and neither of the Marines are sure what to do. Leo takes off his helmet and runs a hand through his hair. He sniffs a little and rubs his nose, it's a nervous habit of his. He glances at the girl Marine across from him then turns his attention to the dull gray of the Pelican's interior. He wishes there was a window so he could pretend to be admiring the scenery, but this is a military Pelican and so doesn't have such excessive luxuries.

The girl's past her full-blown sobbing and now she's on the tortured, anguished sniffling stage. Leo mentally kicks himself. What's her name? He focuses for a moment, then remembers. It's Stacy, which strikes Leo as a tinge stereotypical. It's such a young-person's name. He carefully gets up, putting his helmet on the ground, steps over Anthony's corpse, and takes a seat next to her.

He helps her take off her helmet. It seemed like the right thing to do. She manages to say a teary thank you while wiping her eyes, which greatly improves her looks. She's pretty, thinks Leo. Then his conscience tells him, what the fuck?

The two shell-shocked Marines look into each other's eyes. It's romantic—then they start kissing. Everything's going to be all right, says Leo. Yes, says Stacy. It starts slow, but soon enough it progresses into full blown, intimate making out.

We look like psychos, thinks Leo. The Pelican slows to a landing and the two pull apart for a moment. Then they start again.

"Okay folks, we're back at camp. Go—"the pilot says as he opens the door. Then he sees his two live passengers warming up in the seats of his ship. "Fucking greenhorns, get the fuck off my ship!"

Leo picks his helmet up off the ground. "Sir, which landing zone are we in?" "We're in Beta, son, now get the hell out," answers the pilot. The Marines are only too happy to oblige, and they hop off. My tent's nearby, Leo tells Stacy, and off they go. The disgusted pilot calls over some medics to handle Anthony. He lets out a long sigh and has a smoke waiting for them to arrive. Just another day in the life.

Meanwhile, Leo is opening his tent. Voila, it's wide open. He half-pushes Stacy in while furtively looking around. Nobody's paying attention to them. He quickly enters and frantically zips up the tent. Good thing Anthony was his roommate.

* * *

**A/N: Leo's a sick fucker. In case you missed it, he's glad Anthony (the dead guy) was his roommate so he doesn't have to worry about anyone walking in on him having sex. Yay...?**

**In the Lena section I tried to make the Covenant seem like the intimidating foe they are. 6/16/14 update to make the Jackal fight more intense. **

**Feel free to tell me your thoughts in the review section. Or in whatever manner pleases you. **


End file.
